674 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



head of which, is its devoted translator, Baboo Pratapa Chandra 

 Roy, of Calcntta. This work has now reached upward of four 

 thousand pages, and is hardly more than two thirds completed. 



In subsequent seasons the association studied the historical 

 development of the Rational Movement in Religion, Social Prob- 

 lems, viewed in the Light of History, and the works of Ralph 

 Waldo Emerson, Thomas Carlyle, and " George Eliot." Its mem- 

 bership had expanded so far beyond the original thirty or forty 

 who comprised the Sunday-school class that private parlors were 

 too contracted for its meetings, and by the courtesy of the trustees 

 of the Second Unitarian Church they were transferred, first to the 

 vestry, and subsequently to the main auditorium of the church. 

 Here were inaugurated, in the fall of 1888, on Sunday evenings, 

 the noteworthy lectures and discussions on Evolution which at- 

 tracted the favorable attention of many of the leading minds in 

 Europe and America to the association and its work. 



Mr. Herbert Spencer, to whom the programme of that year 

 was submitted, gave it his cordial indorsement, saying in his 

 very appreciative letter : " The spread of the doctrine of evolution 

 is both surprising and encouraging. The mode of presentation 

 seems to me admirably adapted for popularizing evolution views, 

 and it will, I think, be a great pity if the effect of such presenta- 

 tion should be limited to a few listeners in Brooklyn." Acting 

 upon this suggestion, the association, which had now formally 

 adopted the less formidable title of " The Brooklyn Ethical Asso- 

 ciation," commenced the regular publication of its lectures, each 

 one being first issued in cheap pamphlet form, and the lectures of 

 each season subsequently compiled in handsome cloth bindings. 

 Four noble volumes now constitute the lasting memorial of the 

 work of the association for the past four years in popularizing 

 evolution views. Under the titles, respectively, of Evolution, 

 Sociology, Evolution in Science, Philosophy, and Art, and Man 

 and the State, the leading problems of physics, biology, philoso- 

 phy, sociology, religion, ethics, and practical politics have been 

 ably treated from the standpoint of the philosophical evolutionist. 



Much of the work, and admittedly some of the best work of 

 the association, has been done by its active members, among 

 whom distinctions would be invidious. This work, which has 

 involved much time and study, has been rendered gratuitously by 

 the lecturers. Others, not active members of the association, whose 

 names stand in the first rank of the disciples of science and advo- 

 cates of evolution, have cordially co-operated, among whom we 

 may mention Prof. John Fiske,* Prof. Joseph Le Conte,* Prof. E. 

 D. Cope,* Mr. Daniel Greenleaf Thompson, Mr. Garret P. Serviss, 



* Corresponding members. 



